


Three Places Kim Merrill Lived, & One Where She Lived Happily Ever After

by Gray Cardinal (Gray_Cardinal)



Category: Mairelon the Magician - Patricia Wrede
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-27 09:20:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Cardinal/pseuds/Gray%20Cardinal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“One doesn’t hold onto a family fortune,” Mairelon explained, “by keeping an enormous household running if no one but the staff is actually living there.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Places Kim Merrill Lived, & One Where She Lived Happily Ever After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mairelon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mairelon/gifts).



> **Disclaimer:** _Richard Merrill (aka “Mairelon the Magician”), Kim, and the world wherein they reside are the creations of Patricia Wrede. This story is not, and so reflects my perceptions of the characters and setting rather than hers. If and when we get a third book, readers are invited to compare the speculations below with the official account. Till then, the speculations will have to do._

**Wendall Hall, Kent**

Though they spent most of that first year at his parents’ estate, Kim and Mairelon never actually lived in the manor house.  “One doesn’t hold onto a family fortune,” Mairelon had explained, “by keeping an enormous household running if no one but the staff is actually living there.”  Most of the servants, he explained, had gone with Lord and Lady Wendall to the family’s London residence in Russell Square, where they were living during the Season. 

Instead, they settled into one of the two cottages situated on the fringes of the estate – it would have been the gardener’s, Mairelon said, except that the present gardener and gatekeeper were twin brothers, and had chosen to share the gatekeeper’s quarters.  By Kim’s standards, even the gardener’s cottage was enormous.  She and Mairelon both had bedrooms all to themselves, and there was a third occupied by the live-in housekeeper he hired to look after them.  His mother had insisted on this last, “so that the proprieties are observed,” Mairelon reported, but as far as Kim was concerned, Mrs. West’s presence was justified entirely on the basis of her excellent cooking.  Hunch, who stayed in the spare bedroom in the other cottage, evidently agreed, as he took most of his meals with Mairelon and Kim.

Mairelon, of course, still had keys for the manor itself, and gave Kim a brief but thorough tour of the premises not long after their arrival.  “There will be houses like this in your future soon enough,” he said, “whether to live in or simply to visit.  Best to see what they’re like now, and get used to the idea.”

Kim, as they passed from one elegant chamber to another – ballroom, salon, billiards room, library, dining room, parlor – shook her head in wonder.  “Used to this?  Me?”

Mairelon chuckled.  “Perhaps not.  But you’ll need to look as if you are, at least.  If I can play the street magician, surely you can act the part of a gentry-born miss.”

Kim eyed him doubtfully.  “’Tisn’t the same,” she said.  “But God knows I’ll try.”

#

**Grosvenor Square, London**

The weeks prior to Kim’s and Mairelon’s wedding were – for the most part – a mad whirl of planning and preparation, with tradesmen constantly coming and going and fittings of one kind or another almost daily.  So Kim was startled to realize, on a day some three weeks before the event, that Lady Wendall had left their schedule for that morning entirely blank.

“But of course,” said Mairelon’s mother when Kim asked about it.  “There are a few matters which we must discuss privately, so that you are properly prepared—”

Kim flushed.  “I _have_ talked to Mlle. – to Renée,” she said, “about – that night.”

Lady Wendall smiled gently.  “That is well...but it is not what I meant.”

“Then what...?” Kim trailed off, puzzled.

The older woman gave her a sympathetic look.  “I’m not sure you’ve realized,” she said, “quite how much work lies ahead of you.  I don’t suppose Richard has said anything about setting up a proper household, for example.”

“Um, no,” Kim said, restraining a gulp.  “I know we can’t just live here—”

“Indeed not,” said Lady Wendall.  “You will need a place of your own, one where two wizards can work comfortably – and that is somewhat uncommon in London.  More, you will have that household’s affairs to manage: servants to hire, provisioning, and the like.  It is a considerable responsibility.”

“Surely Mairelon will—”  Kim broke off, smiling slightly despite herself.  “No, you’re right.  He’s no featherhead, but he don’t – doesn’t pay attention to that sort of thing.  But a whole grand household....”  She flung both arms over her head.

“Yours need not be so large,” said Lady Wendall.  “You will need at least a little space to entertain, but not nearly so much as this.  It is not too soon to begin making inquiries.  Or,” she added, “to have Richard make the necessary adjustments so that you may begin overseeing the relevant expenses.”

Kim’s eyes went round, as the implication sank in.  “But that will mean—”

Lady Wendall laughed aloud, but it was a kindly laugh.  “That you are no mere impostor living among the rich, but a wealthy woman in your own right.  So it will.”

_Forty thousand pounds in the Funds,_ Kim thought.  “A street thief like me?”

“A practical young woman like you,” Lady Wendall replied.  “You’ll do more than well enough.  And you will be very good for Richard.  Of that, I have no doubt whatsoever.”

#

**County Wicklow, Ireland**

“This is not,” Mairelon said, “what I’d planned for a honeymoon.”

Together, he and Kim were peering through the flap of a small canvas tent, which had proven almost entirely incapable of protecting them from the dense fall rainstorm going on outside.  The sun had not quite set, but the gray-black shroud of the clouds overhead blocked most of its glow, making it difficult to see more than a few yards into the glen at whose edge the tent was pitched.

Kim made a noise that was half snort, half sneeze.  “’Course not.  ‘Tisn’t as if that cob O’Flaherty knew it was our wedding day when he nicked the most dangerous magic book in all London, practically right out of Lord Kerring’s hands.”

“Yes, well,” said Mairelon.  “Shoreham did say he could send someone else.”

“And who would that be?” Kim demanded.  “You said it yourself – anyone else’d stick out in Ireland like a toff in Petticoat Lane.”

“Touché, my dear.  Still, that is hardly an excuse for dragging you into this abysmal weather.”

“As if I’d of let you go without me!”

“ _Have_ let you go,” Mairelon said automatically.  “Point taken.  However, I submit that not even the redoubtable Mr. O’Flaherty is likely to attempt his rendezvous with the local rebels in the present downpour.”

Kim cocked an eyebrow at him.  “So?”

“So, apart from the sheep in yonder glen, no one is likely to disturb us for the next several hours.  If you would kindly close that tent flap....”

Kim’s fingers had never moved faster.  And shortly, both of them completely ceased to notice the chill and damp of their surroundings.

#

**Cavendish Square, London**

It had been, Kim reflected, a singularly eventful year.  Between the triumphant (if rain-soaked) episode in Ireland, the lush interlude in Vienna, the unexpected side trip to Spain, and her unusually quick graduation to journeyman status among her fellow wizards, there had been scarcely time to devote proper attention to the house she and Mairelon had purchased just off Cavendish Square.  A certain amount of refitting had been necessary to adapt the dwelling for not one but two practicing wizards, but they had agreed that the place was admirably situated and entirely well-suited in all other respects. 

So the house had been purchased, and during the few weeks they’d actually spent in London, Kim had recruited a handful of servants and arranged for furnishings – both accomplished with invaluable but unobtrusive assistance from Lady Wendall.  Some of the furniture consisted of family pieces brought out of storage, but most had been chosen by Kim, with Mairelon occasionally in tow.  The total cost of the project had – from Kim’s perspective, at least – been staggering, but Lady Wendall assured her that in fact they had been admirably prudent.

Now Kim stood at the window in her new bedroom, looking down at the street below as early winter snow began to fall.  The custom of separate quarters for husband and wife amused her – most nights, one or the other went entirely unused – and the connecting door to Mairelon’s room stood open behind her.

“So,” said Mairelon himself, coming through the door to lay a hand on her shoulder, “are we finally done with the workmen?”

Kim turned, brushing his lips lightly with her own.  “I’d have said yes,” she told him, “but I think there’s just one more job we ought to have done.”

“Oh?”  Mairelon frowned.  “Something still isn’t right?”

“It’s nothing major,” Kim assured him.  “Just a touch of paint and a few oddments in one of the bedrooms.”

“A few oddments?”

Kim nodded, keeping her expression as serious as she could.  “It’s just – we’ve got to turn it into a nursery.”

“A – _nursery_?”

“Just so.”

Mairelon blinked, stepped back, studied Kim critically – and then folded her snugly but carefully into his arms.  “Well, then.  We’d best tell Shoreham that we’ll not be traveling abroad for some time to come.  And I suppose,” he added, a trifle ruefully, “that you’ll be wanting more, ah, _rest_ at night for the next few months?”

“Maybe so,” Kim told him.  “But not just yet.”

# # #


End file.
